MDs Warn Teens: Don’t Take the Cinnamon Challenge

An Ypsilanti, Mich., teen who was hospitalized for a collapsed lung after trying the cinnamon challenge heartily supports the new advice and started her own website — http://nocinnamonchallenge.com — telling teens to “just say no” to the fad.

Dejah Reed, 16, said she took the challenge four times — the final time was in February last year with a friend who didn’t want to try it alone.

“I was laughing very hard and I coughed it out and I inhaled it into my lungs,” she said. “I couldn’t breathe.”

Her father, Fred Reed, said he arrived home soon after to find Dejah “a pale bluish color. It was very terrifying. I threw her over my shoulder” and drove to a nearby emergency room.

Dejah was hospitalized for four days and went home with an inhaler and said she still has to use it when she gets short of breath from running or talking too fast. Her dad said she’d never had asthma or breathing problems before.

Dejah said she’d read about the challenge on Facebook and other social networking sites and “thought it would be cool” to try.